Well I am trying my hand at this blogging thing - Let's see if this will be helpful to all who would like to follow the travels and experiences of our son Weston on his mission. We feel so blessed to have so many family and friends who support, pray for and love our son. Thank you for all you have done to help Weston fulfill his desire to serve a mission.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

01/04/2010

Hola from Chile,

Hey fam, this week has been slow actually work wise. Everyone is out on the streets partying and drinking but it is starting to get better now. Lol new years was fun, we stayed up till 12 and made ourselves dinner...lol

Today has been a fun p-day. We woke up early and took the bus an hour and a half to see this big lake with lots of trout! This has got dad excited I am sure. Only thing is it wasn’t a big lake, more like lots of little ponds. But it was still cool because there were so many that they swam close to the edge and I leaned over and picked one up with my hands! Lol it was sweet! Kinda creepy too so I dropped it real fast.

Anyways for mom and pops, update on the companion. Don’t worry about it, I got this. Lol he’s not that bad. We have been without the bikes this week and it has been a blessing cause between walking 40 minutes to each appointment we have talked a lot. His problem is that he is not here because he loves his Savior he is here because he is supposed to be and wants to make his family proud. So we have been building his faith there. Also he is satisfied with not baptizing. He says he is just a "planting seeds missionary"...yeah that doesn’t really fly with me. Lol I told him straight up I was here to baptize. But really don’t worry about it we found some really good new people this week. For new years we had an actividad. We went to Colina and played football americano for 3 hours! So so fun! But I ran the whole time! And I could barely walk the next day lol.

I don’t have like a really funny story this week but I do have a funny note about Chile. Lots of Chileans walk around with American shirts on but don’t know what they mean. They walk around with shirts that say I'm ugly or you will see a big muscle guy with a world’s greatest aunt shirt on. Lol so it’s always fun to see that.

Ok spiritual thought.

Today I want to talk about who we all really are. I wish for you all to never forget that we are all Children of God and as such are entitled to his throne. Think about it, God is the King of this Kingdom, and we are his children (princes and princesses) and as such we will one day "inherit all the father has" for "as man is, God once was, as God is now, Man may become"

In Moses 1:12 we read:

12 And it came to pass that when Moses had said these words, behold, Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me.

We see Satan’s attempt to attack Moses understanding of his divine relationship as a son of God in order to tempt him. Satan refers to Moses as “son of man”. It is one of Satan’s greatest tools he uses on all of us to cause us to question our own divine nature as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. He seems to use this particular tool in some of our most difficult moments. If he can cause us just for a second to forget who we are and what is our purpose, he may have a greater chance for us to be disobedient to a commandment, not be as diligent as we can be or even begin to chip away at our faith in Jesus Christ.

Moses is quick to discern what Satan is trying to do. He responds with both powerful questions and declarations that both expose Satan for who he is and who he is not. We read in verses 13-15:

13 And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?

14 For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely?

15 Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve.

Moses declares who he is and expresses powerfully his relationship with his Heavenly Father. He remembers what he has been taught by his Heavenly Father:

16 Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.

Let us be strong in moments of temptation by being “quick to remember” that we are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father who always stands by us.